ght to our attention, we have examined into many and obtained
indictments and convictions, but how many cases are in existence is the
same kind of a question as though the crime were pension fraud, or
counterfeiting, or public land fraud, or fraud on the revenue. Where we
have found several cases we may conclude that there are, or have been, or
are likely to be others, but this is speculation. Sometimes we feel
confident that our pounding away for nearly two years has frightened into
inactivity those who were practicing peonage in the same State with the
persons convicted and sentenced. We hear now and then of workmen being
turned loose to the right and to the left of us when prosecutions are
going on, but while it would be discouraging to think that we have not
thus reduced the evil to much smaller dimensions, I regret to say that
cases are still being discovered or reported in various directions."

The real foundation of peonage, after all, as it relates to the Negro is
the refusal to regard him as a man having rights as other men have them.
So far has wrong, and injustice, and oppression gone that not only is the
Negro outside of the consideration of the law of the land, but practically
outside of the humane and kindly regard of a majority of the white race in
the United States. Not only are laws perverted and given a special twist
and interpretation in cases where the Negro is a party to litigation, but
even words in ordinary use lose their accepted meaning when applied to
him. The word "duty," for instance, has not a scintilla of moral
significance in it when used about or spoken to a Negro. It has purely an
industrial and economic meaning, which may be expressed in the injunction,
"Servants, obey your masters." The word "kindness," which implies one of
the noblest traits of human nature, when applied to a Negro means simply
that his treatment shall not be so harsh as to cause people who are yet
included in the category of decent, to wince and protest. The denial of
right to the Negro has been progressive in the past forty years. First, he
was denied the right to vote, and we were told if he would only hold that
right in abeyance that he might enjoy other rights in fuller measure.
Many, under a misconception of the facts, accepted this view, but since
the denial of the right to vote other rights have been impaired. The right
to education in its broadest and most comprehensive sense is now
practically denied him every